Lance Mercer Photography

Lance Mercer, born and raised in Seattle, started photographing the local music scene at the age of 13. He graduated from Seattle Central Community College commercial photography program in 1987. He became a fulltime free-lance photographer in 1991. Through his involvement with the local music scene he was invited to tour with Pearl Jam in 1992-95 as their official photographer. This work subsequently enabled him to work full time as a music photographer with many other well-known musical artists. Has photographed many album covers, clients have included Epic Records, Columbia Records, Capitol, Warner Brothers, Geffen and A&M. His photos have been published in the likes of Rolling Stone, Spin, Time, Vanity Fair, and Alternative Press. His first major project, a collaboration with another local photographer, Charles Peterson, was a Pearl Jam retrospective book in photos called Place/Date. For the last 5 years he has been performing in a band of his own called The Briefs. After many tours and 3 full-length records his focus has again returned to the darkroom, and teaching photography at PCNW as well as music photography workshops in various schools in Seattle he just released a new book on Pearl Jam called, 5X1 Pearl Jam Through The Eye of Lance Mercer.